Shelby County Democrats attempt reboot

When last we visited the local political organization known as the Shelby County Democratic Party, it was anything but organized.

​Bickering, financial mismanagement and intolerable egos had driven the party into the abyss. Longtime members, particularly those serving in elected office, stayed as far away from the chaos as possible.

One of them was U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who grew to regard the local party as completely irrelevant. Cohen has managed to win six straight congressional elections – all by landslides – without a lot of aid from the SCDP.

The big blow came nearly a year ago when Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini effectively disbanded the local group after the in-fighting – including harsh words aimed at Mancini herself – became too much to take.

It was an embarrassingly low moment for a party that for decades had ruled the political roost in Shelby County. The party of E. H. “Boss” Crump, Mike Cody, Harold Ford Sr. and Jr., and onetime chairman Jim Strickland (now the mayor of Memphis), was reduced to nothing.

Despite the decertification, which took effect less than three months before the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton still won Shelby County by more than 127,000 votes.

Now here we are a year later, and the revival has begun. Several hundred party enthusiasts – some old, but most new – showed up a week ago for a convention aimed at restoring SCDP to some semblance of relevance.

The reinvention was led by attorney David Cocke, a longtime Democratic loyalist who has served four times as chairman, and attorney Clarissa Shaw, a relative newcomer who spent about three months on the executive committee last year before the party was disbanded.

The sizable and racially diverse crowd at last week’s convention was an encouraging sign for state party leaders, including Mancini and two people who likely will be vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year – former Nashville mayor Karl Dean and state House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh.

Veteran stalwarts such as former county commissioner Julian Bolton and former city councilman Myron Lowery were there. But the vast majority consisted of budding political activists who had never attended a local party convention before.

And quiet as it’s kept, a lot of the newbies were vocal supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during the 2016 presidential campaign. Some were active in protest movements last year, including the infamous standoff near Graceland mansion during Elvis Week. While others are part of the “Fight for $15” aimed at, among other things, increasing the minimum wage.

In essence, the re-emerging SCDP seems to be a cornucopia of special interest groups which is similar to the national party. But if the local party really intends to represent a return of the Jedi, two things have to happen.

One, the party must select a dynamic and fresh new face to serve as party chair when that decision is made Aug. 5. It has to be someone who can bridge the gap between the old-time party faithful and the newcomers who want their voices heard. And someone with the credibility and skill to deliver a coherent message and energize Shelby’s huge base of Democratic voters to also benefit statewide candidates.

And two, the party has to recruit quality candidates for county offices and get them elected next year. The main reason that Republicans control almost every elected county office is due to Democratic disarray in recent years.

The party simply cannot afford to field the likes of former TV judge Joe Brown in 2018. If it does, the Dems are doomed.

But for now, at least, there is hope in SCDP land. The old cantankerous guards have been swept away, and new blood is getting on board. An emerging sense of direction seems to be replacing a clear sense of dysfunction.

A revamped web site is promising a working party that will be a sounding board for various constituencies, and will stress accountability and get-out-the-vote efforts.

It will take all that and more to again rival the well-honed Republican Party in Shelby County. But at least the Dems are off the mat and preparing to fight again.

Hopefully for their sake, they won’t be fighting each other.

Otis Sanford holds the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis. Contact him at 901-678-3669 or at o.sanford@memphis.edu. Follow him on Twitter @otissanford.